Emery volleyball wins two matches this week

If one has taken a moment out of their busy, busy life to attend a volleyball game at Emery High School, one would find a Spartan volleyball team that is currently playing exciting, focused team volleyball that just maybe is some of the best at Emery High School in quite a while.

This Spartan team played a pair pf preseason games at home last week and decisively defeated a pair of 3-A teams in the Spartan Center.

On Tuesday, Emery defeated Canyon View in three straight games 25-23, 25-22 and 28-26. On Thursday, Emery defeated perennial power Carbon High in four games 25-22, 22-25, 25-13 and 26-24.

After watching the team play the past several weeks, it was not a surprise that they won. This team seems to have their so-called act together. They are serving well, they are defending the net well, they react well as a team on almost every play, they are fun to watch and it is easy to get caught up in them.

In both matches last week, Emery won the final game in overtime to win the match. In volleyball, the first team to 25 points wins if they lead by at least two points. In these two games, Emery had to score more than that to get the victory.

In each final game, the visiting team had the opportunity to win but those teams could not put away this Spartan team. It was almost as if they didn't realize that they could lose. They maintained their composure and took the victories which easily could have gone a different way.

It is evident that the team, as a whole and individually, have been working on a jump serve and this year's team is serving well. It has long been a pet peeve of mine to see volleyball teams that could not get the ball over the net on a serve. I didn't understand how they couldn't do that simple little task. Well this team can do that task and with a little bit of authority.

Kaitlyn Thompson, in game one against the Falcons, served eight straight points to help Emery go from being down at 21-14 to being up 23-21. Thompson also did this a week ago and I inadvertently left her out of the story, ignoring her value to the team and so my apologies to her.

Brittany Fauver and Jessica Guymon also had times where they served extremely well and the team scored multiple points while they were serving.

Besides the two games that Emery won in overtime to win the matches last week, Emery went to the final moments before winning in every game but one, the third Carbon game that they won easily.

In game one against Canyon View, the two teams were tied at 23-23. In game two, the two teams were tied at 22-22. In game one against Carbon, Emery was up 24-17 before hanging on to win 25-22. This Emery team does not allow situations bother them in their quest to win.

The starting six of this team are seniors Brittany Fauver, Catherine Dyer and Laurel Roundy plus juniors Shelby Allred, Hailee Rogers and Jessica Guymon. Kaitlyn Thompson is a senior that holds down the Libero position. All are contributors to the team.